A Unitarian sermon

If you click on the link below you will be able to see the minister at All Souls Unitarian Church deliver the sermon on March 23, 2012.  The sermon lasts 35 minutes.  I hope that several of you will watch at least two or three minutes of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEuj3kMIBM&context=C411957eADvjVQa1PpcFPYLBHtdNDeRlC4n4TDfYbpVQXnKIdO8z4=

Food and Fellowship, 3.24.12

Today the Humanist group met at La Hacienda for our monthly Food and Fellowship gathering.  There were 11 people present, with two, Mike and Lisa, being first-timers.

One topic of conversation was about a study conducted at the University of Michigan dealing with beliefs and facts.  The study showed that when facts were presented to a person which conflicted with his or her beliefs, that the person would not shift beliefs to make them fit the facts. 

Facts about a matter were ignored so that a person would not to have revise his or her thinking.  The more facts that were presented, the more the person would double down with his or her incorrect beliefs.

Gail and Glenn were back from their birding trip to Arizona.  I chatted with Barbara Frey telling her about the movie Midnight in Paris which I recently saw (DVD from library).  Barbara for years taught English and I knew she would like to see the movie.  It is one of the best movies I have seen in recent years.  It is written and directly by Woody Allen.  It contains an element of the supernatural in that the main character is able to time travel back to the 1920s to fulfill I wish he secretly longs for.  One of the characters he meets in the 1920s longs to live in the Belle Epoch of the 1890s.  It is a good movie with a happy ending.

Allen Institute for Brain Science

Here is a short video on important work being done in the area of brain science.  To watch, scroll down and click on the triangle in the video.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/paul-g-allen-commits-300m-to-expand-the-allen-institute-for-brain-science-to-drive-toward-a-complete-understanding-of-how-the-brain-works

An outing

We got out of the house today and headed for Tulsa, once we picked up Jen and Luke and Ayla.  We headed for Incredible Pizza.  Jon (Jen's brother) followed in his car. It was a rainy day, and when we got to Incredible Pizza the line waiting to get in stretched out the door on to the sidewalk.  It was still raining lightly.  Noticing that the line was not moving, we decided to bail.  Both grandkids were heartbroken; Luke burst into tears.  Jon suggested we go to Dave and Busters.  We loaded up, and I followed Jon to Dave and Busters about a mile or two away.

Dave and Busters is sort of an upscale Incredible Pizza.  Instead of the all-you-can-eat pizza, D & B has a restaurant with a wait staff.  I ate grilled salmon on rice with carrots and broccoli.  In addition to the meal, you get a plastic card with a magnetic strip on the back which you use to activate the games in the game room.  After eating we played games for about an hour.  You get a number of tickets after you play a game depending on how well you performed.  I gained between 500 and 600 tickets.  Before you leave, you cash your tickets in for prizes.  We adults gave our tickets to Luke and Ayla.  They enjoyed picking out prizes.

Labyrinth at Hunter Park

Here is a picture I took with my cell phone.  This is the labyrinth at Hunter Park.  We walked a volkswalk last Saturday at this location.  The labyrinth was near the start of the walk.  The walk went through the park and then got on a trail which crossed Sheridan Ave.  The total distance was 3.1 miles.

Video: Kurzweil on Expanding Intelligence

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ray-kurzweils-sxsw-keynote-expanding-our-intelligence-without-limit

This past week

This past week we made a trip to Springfield.  We drove there on Wednesday and came back to Sand Springs on Thursday.  While there I walked the halls of the Abbey for three miles in order to maintain my effort to walk an average of a mile a day this year.

Today we did a combination labyrinth walk and volkswalk this morning.  The labyrinth was part of the volkswalk.  The walk started and finished in Hunter Park in south Tulsa.  My walking total for the year is now at 109 miles.  I'm a little ahead of my mile a day average.

Apparently we a having an early spring this year.  Now that warmer weather is here, I hope to get out more and do more volkswalks.  The walk I did today is number 251.  It was 5 kilometers (or 3.1 miles) long.

Woody Guthrie exhibit at Gilcrease

Yesterday after walking three miles at the fitness center, we went to the Gilcrease Museum to see the exhibit on Woody Guthrie.  The exhibit has been open for a couple of weeks.

Guthrie was the famous singer/songwriter born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912.  This year would be Woody's 100th birthday.  He died of Huntington's Disease sometime around 1967, if I remember correctly.

It just so happened that when we were there Woody's sister-in-law and other Guthrie family members were touring the museum.

For the longest time the city of Okemah ignored Guthrie because of his leftist associations.  But when they realized they could turn a buck off his name, they started taking advantage of the tourism opportunity.

Birthday celebration

Today I turned 64 years old.  My cousin Vicki from Houston called to wish me a happy birthday.  She also sent me two shirts and several pairs of socks.  My son sent me a $50 Amazon gift card as did J.  My parents sent a check for $50.  So I have a healthy balance now with Amazon.  I can download more books.

We went out to China Star for dinner tonight.  I ate a lot of scallops, shrimp, and salmon.  It was all very good.  I have lost a few pounds in the last month, but I probably put them back on tonight.  I have a health coach who calls me about once a month.  I would like to be able to tell him that I have lost weigh since we last talked.  I walked another three miles at the fitness center this morning. 

Our oven quit working last weekend.  We called Collins Appliance and a repairman came out today and replaced a part.  About a month ago our hot water heater sprung a leak.  We had to have that replaced.

Week in Review Continued

On Tuesday, we went to our new polling location, the Cathedral of Praise.  It had been the Church of Christ.  Why it changed, I do not know.

In Oklahoma, when you vote in the primary, you are asked your party affiliation.  I told the poll worker that I was registered as a Democrat.  She gave me a ballot, which I marked for President Obama.  There was a second ballot having to do with some local issues.  I marked it as well.

Next we went across the street to the fitness center and walked a couple of miles.  We went home and showered and left for St. Patrick's Cathedral.  There were about a hundred people at St. Patrick's for the Journey to Easter program.  Most of the people were from the Methodist church.  As we were sitting there waiting for the service to begin, out comes the priests and chastises the people in the pews for talking.  A hush fell over the gathering.  Ten minutes later the service started.  St. Patrick's might be the most attractive church in Sand Springs, what with its stained glass windows and statuary (objects which some regard as idols).  After the service, we went downstairs to the fellowship hall and ate chili and a dessert.

When we had returned home, I got a call from someone asking about my education.  They wanted to know if I might be interested in taking further classwork and in what discipline.  I said I might be intered in working on a MA degree in English.  Just prior to receiving this call I had completed another online lesson on building your vocabulary which the library offers through its web site.  I don't know if the two are connected or not.  The person I spoke with asked if it would be all right to contact an online educational institution and provide them with my information.  I said it would.  Within five minutes my phone rang.  Someone from Grand Canyon University called to see if I would like to enroll as an online student.  I asked if they offered a MA degree in English.  It turned out they don't.  That was the end of that.

That evening J and I picked up Gail and Glenn Storey and went to a concert at Tulsa University.  The concert was held in the new Lorton Performance Center.  Tulsa Trio was the group performing.  Roger Price played the piano and two women played violin and cello.  We heard music by Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Ravel.

Glenn has had jury duty this week.  We heard on the news tonight that there had been a shooting down at the court house.  Four or five people were shot.  It will be interesting to hear what Glenn has to say about this incident.

Church announcement

Cell phones in church:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/D2_c81Nnsc0

The last few days in review

Sunday was Humanist Sunday at Church of the Restoration.  Gail and I played a piano duet as the special music.  We played a piece by Scott Joplin titled "Solace." 

I gave the message which I titled "Human Life Extension."  I began by noting the early deaths of several well-known composers and how long they lived: Mozart (35), Robert Schumann (46), Franz Schubert (31), Chopin (39), Beethoven (56).  And the English Romantic poets: Byron (36), Shelley (30), and Keats (26).  I quoted the poet Dylan Thomas who wrote the lines: "Do not go gentle into that good night./Rage, rage against the dying of the light."  Thomas died when he was 39.

I mentioned that sanitation and medicine have come a long way in extending the lives of people living today.  I cited myself as an example, having contracted pertussis (whopping cough) at two weeks of age.  Today in the U.S., life expectancy is 77.2 years.  Aubrey de Grey, a scientist working in the department of genetics at Cambridge University, says that by the year 2100 human life expectancy will be in the region of 5,000 years.

Bill Gates believes Kurzweil to be the best in the world at predicting the future.  According to Kurzweil computers will have consciousness by 2029.  Then their intelligence will start to exceed that of humans.  By the 2030s, computers will have become millions of times more intelligent than humans.  Then the question becomes, Will the artificial intellegences (AI) be willing to keep humans around.?

We will understand how our brains work in 2024.  We will have "flash memories" we can plug into our brains.

When asked "Does God exist?" Kurzweil replies, "I would say not yet."

I mentioned the DVD a small group of us watched on this subject titled "Transcendent Man."  It can be found in many libraries.  I also mentioned a web site http://www.kurzweilai.net/ which tracks developments related to life extension. 

Following my talk we had a potluck dinner during which I fielded several questions from the congregation on the topic about which I had spoken.

Afterwards Steve Nunn and I talked about replacing the sign out front (which gives the names of the church and other information) with a better sign.  We will be working on that in the coming months.  Presently Steve is working on replacing the doors of the church.  Steve is the new leader of the Humanist Association of Tulsa.

I have a few other things to write about, but I will save them for tomorrow.

A Cause for Optimism

Peter Diamandis is an associate of Ray Kurzweil.  In this video he explains why he has such an optimistic outlook on life.

http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_diamandis_abundance_is_our_future.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2012-03-02&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Mainstream Baptist: Dominionists at Work in Oklahoma

Below is a link to a posting found in the blog Mainstream Baptist.  Please read.

Mainstream Baptist: Dominionists at Work in Oklahoma

Fantastic Voyage

Last night I watched a DVD I checked out from the Tulsa Library titled Fantastic Voyage.  It is a science fiction story about a group of people who are trying to save a person with a brain injury.  Thanks to some medical technology, they are able to be miniaturized so that they can enter a person's blood stream and travel to the site of the injury.  The movie was made in 1966 and in some ways is very dated.  My interest in the movie springs from a book written by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman which has the same title.  I am making preparations for a talk I will give next Sunday at Church of the Restoration.

My talk will be on the subject of Human Life Extension.  According to Kurzweil, we are only about 20 to 30 years away from some remarkable medical technology which will give us the capability to halt and reverse aging.  Kurzweil envisions nanobots which we inject into our blood stream to repair our bodies.  Nanobots are blood cell sized robots which are programmed to achieve a task.  Much of Fantastic Voyage and their other book Transcend focus on being healthy enough to get to that point in time.

Nick returns from England

Today Nick returned from England, specifically London, where he worked with a client for a week.  We surrendered our grandchildren to Nick and his wife, Jennifer.  We kept them for nine days.  Some of the time we slept here, and some of the time we slept at Nick's house.  We enjoyed watching Nick's large screen TV.  It is about 3' by 5'.  We ate out most of the time.  I lost about four pounds during those nine days.

I went to church today.  It was the first activity that I attended while we kept the grandchildren.  I wanted to annnouce that next Sunday would be Humanist Sunday.  I have made a few notes, but I will try to write out the talk this week.  Normally I select the hymns from the hymnal, but Bill D. suggested we sing "Imagine" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" in place of the traditional hymns.  We had a good size crowd today, 15 or so.  In some churches that would be the size of a Sunday school class, but our Sunday school classs (there's just one) usually runs about four or five. 

Because we kept Luke and Ayla last week, I had to cancel piano duet practice.  Tomorrow will be our last chance to practice "Solace" by Scott Joplin, the special selection for Humanist Sunday.

This past week

This past week has been a real adventure.  We have spent a lot of time with my grandchildren, Luke and Ayla.  Today we took them to a park nearby where they played for quite a while.  We ordered take-out pizza for lunch and for dinner we ate at Braum's.  Their parents should be back from a week in London tomorrow.

I will be speaking at Restoration on March 4.  J said I could go tomorrow to the main service to make the announcement about Humanist Sunday.  I will miss the Religious Education hour, as well as the congregational meeting following the service tomorrow.

Regenerative medicine

Below is a link to a video about the state of regenerative medicine.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ntd-organ-manufacturing

Universal Class

Thanks to Rosemary at church, I learned about an online series of courses provided by the library called Universal Class.  Rosemary works at the Tulsa Library.  I signed up and am now taking a course on building your vocabulary.  There are dozens of courses available.  The first course I tried to sign up for was filled.  You have six months to finish the course.  There is an instructor with whom you communicate by e-mail. You take tests periodically.

Back from Broken Arrow

We are back home from Broken Arrow.  We left Tuesday afternoon on the BA Expressway.  We soon reached the motel just off the BA where we spent the night.  The first thing we did was drive to the campus of Northeastern State University to see how long it would take.  It takes about a half hour.  We drove back to the motel (a Hampton) and checked in.  For our dinner that evening, we walked over to the Shiloh restaurant.  They were having a Valentine's Day special which we took advantage of.  J had steak; I had talapia.  We both had a dessert and a glass of wine.  J was given a long-stem rose.

For some reason, we both woke up around 3 to 4 in the morning.  It might have been because to AC/heating unit was constantly going on and off throughout the night.  The motel provided a breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, waffles, cereal, and other breakfast items.  After breakfast, we drove over to the campus.  I let J out of the car and went back to the motel for more sleep.  I checked out of the motel around 10:40 and drove to a McAlister's Deli where I bought a couple of chicken sandwiches, chips and iced tea.  Then I drove on to the campus where I met up with J and we had lunch together in the car.

After lunch, J went back to her insurance class (continuing education), and I went to the library.  I sat in the library and read a portion of Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman's book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever on my Kindle.  I am reading this book in preparation for a talk which I will be giving at Restoration in March.  I earlier read a book by this pair titled Transcend.  Both books deal with life extension technologies.

We left the NEO campus around 3:30 and was home by 4 pm.

Walking club, poetry night, movie night

We attended the February meeting of the Tulsa Walking Club at the LaFortune Library on Wednesday.  There were about 25 members in attendance.  The main issue was whether to meet once a month or once every other month.  They decided to leave the frequency at once a month.  This was the first time in years there we attended a club meeting.

The poetry group met at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore on Friday night.  There were just four of us there: David, Suzi, Sandra and myself.  Gail was away on a trip.

Tonight (Saturday) was Movie Night at the Bradleys.   We picked up Barbara Frey at the retirement home where she lives now.  We saw the movie Examined Life.  It is a montage of vignettes in which philosophers speak for about 10 minutes each.

Piano recital

Tonight we attended a piano recital in the new Lorton Performance Center at Tulsa University.  The facility open just last fall.  This was our first visit.  The concert tonight was free.  The pianist was Roger Price, who is on the faculty at TU.  The man played flawlessly by memory for the better part of two hours.  He played two Beethoven sonatas in the first part of the program.  After intermission, he played several pieces by Franz Liszt. 

I find it difficult to memorize just a single page of music.  Price played by memory for almost two hours.  The program climaxed with Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2."  He wowed the audience.

Pelican Rag went well

Last Sunday, Gail and I played "Pelican Rag" as the special music at Church of the Restoration.  The speaker was Clinton Wiles from Oklahoma City.  He spoke on "The War on Drugs."  Attendance was 16 or more.

Gail came over today around 12:30 for our weekly practice.  Next month was will be playing a piece by Scott Joplin titled "Solace."  Before Gail come over, I went to the fitness center and walked three miles.

In March, I will be the speaker once again at Restoration.  My topic will be "Human Life Extension."  Sanitation practices and modern medicine have made it possible to live into our 80s and 90s.  This is a big change from just 200 years ago.  I sometimes wonder what great music we lost when Mozart died at age 35.  Robert Schumann was but 46 when he died.  Chopin was 39; Mendelssohn was 46; and the great Beethoven was 56, when they checked out.  Think of the Romantic Poets of England, Byron, Shelley, and Keats.  They lived only until the ages of 36, 30, and 26 respectively.  There were exceptions.  Haydn lived to 77, and J.S.Bach lived to 65.  Rossini lived to be 76.  Verdi was a ripe 89 when he drew his last breath. 

At one time many children did not live to see their fifth birthday.  If you knew you were likely to lose several of your children before they reached maturity, you might be inclined to have a large family to insure that you had someone to take care of you in old age.  (This was before the days of Social Security.)

Another update

Last week we drove to Springfield for a short visit with my parents.  We left on Wednesday and came home on Thursday.

On Saturday night we had a fundraiser at Church of the Restoration.  The event was a chili dinner.

On Sunday, Restoration members attended Gerald's class on "Black Liberation Theology" at All Souls Unitarian Church.  After it was over we drove to Restoration and heard a talk on Woody Guthrie.

This is the last day of January.  This month I have managed to walk 38 miles.  I have set a goal of walking 365 miles this year.

The MP3 Saga

Earlier this week I was about to go to the fitness center and walk.  I looked in the drawer where I keep my MP3, only to discover it was not there.  I looked around the house hoping to discover my MP3 player.  No luck.  Where was it?

I decided to look again in the car.  I found it underneath the driver's seat.  I found the MP3 player, but the ear buds were not attached to it.   I suppose the MP3 player had come out of my pocket, but what happened to the ear buds?  I searched the car over for the ear buds for about 20 minutes, but never came up with it.

Off I go to WalMart.  There were several ear buds available.  I bought the least expensive model ($5).  They worked out fine.

Whatever became of the original ear buds, I have no idea.

Still waiting on the computer

A few days ago we took the computer to a shop to get it checked out.  To make a long story short, a virus had wiped out Windows.  Today we had lunch at the Crescent Cafe, which is next door to the computer shop.  We stopped in to see how things were going.  The guy said it would be ready later this afternoon.  We may go get it, or we might wait until tomorrow.  I am typing this on the laptop.  This is why I haven't been posting as frequently as I normally do.Yesterday, I went to Church of the Restoration, as I usually do on Sunday mornings. 

During the R.E. period, the hour before the service starts, we continued watching a video series on the history of Unitarian Universalism.  The series is called "Our American Roots."  We learned about William Ellery Channing and presidents JohnAdams and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom were Unitarians.  The Unitarians and the Universalists merged into one congregation in the early 1960s.  Unitarians believe in, at the most, one god.  Many, like myself, are non-theistic.  The Universalists believe in universal salvation.  They do not believe a god would damn anyone to hellfire.

During the service, Rev. Gerald David (google his name to hear him preach) spoke to the congregation.  There were between 15 and 20 people in attendance.  Gerald speaks on the fourth Sunday of each month.  The first Sunday is Humanist Sunday.  HAT is responsible for the service that day.  The February Humanist Sunday will have Clinton Wiles from OKC speaking.

The day before, we had our Humanism and the Arts program.  17 were there for it.  Gail and I played three piano duets by Melody Bober.  I was impressed by the oral interpretation by Gerald Fitzgerald as he recited two poems from memory by Robert W. Service.  One of the poems he recited was "The Cremation of Sam McGee."

Today began with Gail coming over for our weekly piano duet practice.  I think for our next Humanist Sunday, we might play "Pelican Rag" by Melody Bober.

Occupy Tulsa rally

There was a rally held by Occupy Tulsa today at the Greenwood Cultural Center.  I took some pictures which I will post later after we get our computer "fixed."  We plan to take it in to the shop tomorrow to have a card replaced.  The card is essential to connect to the internet.  Tonight I am writing on the laptop.

The event started around 3 pm and went until about 5 pm.  While there I saw Larry H. from Restoratiion and Jean M. from the HAT group.  Today was MLK day.  The weather was great - near 70 degrees today.  There were some great, inspirational speeches made at the event.  There was also music.  A woman played accordian as a man played guitar.  There was also a group of drummers there.

The purpose for the rally was to focus attention on the Greenwood Cultural Center.  Greenwood is the section of Tulsa which was destroyed during the race massacre of 1921.  The continuation of the GCC is threatened due to the lack of money to sustain the community center.  There are tentative plans for OSU-Tulsa to take over the property.  The GCC has been defunded like so many other organizations which formerly received government support.

Update

Here it is Sunday night, and it has been a few days since I last posted something.  Today I went to Church of the Restoration.  The service today was a memorial of sorts to MLK.  Three congregation members each spoke about their personal background and their memory of King.  About a dozen were present.

In the announcements portion of the service I announced, once again, the upcoming Humanism and the Arts program coming up next weekend.  I had five performers sign up last week.  Today one more joined the group of performers: Joy Avery.  With six people, we should have a nice performance.  Gail and I will be playing piano duets during the program.

Last Monday, I went with J to the Second Monday book club at the Methodist Church.  The book we will be reading for next time is You've Got Mail, Bellie Letts by Molly Levite Griffis.  Letts is an Oklahoma author best known for Where the Heart Is.  This novel was made into a movie.

Five of us were present last Friday at Poetry Group.  We decided for next time that we would once again select two or three poems and read them to the group.  For our March meeting we talked about selecting song lyrics and reading some of our favorites.

A strange night at the movies

J had been wanting to see Warhorse, a movie showing in the area.  We decided to go tonight (7:15 pm screening time) and see it in Sand Springs.  As we entered the theater, people were milling around in the lobby.  We entered the seating area of the multiplex, one of eight theaters in the complex.  We immediately noticed that we were the only people in the room.  About two-thirds of the way through the movie, I needed to pee.  I went to the restroom out by the lobby.  As I walked out, I noticed that we were still the only two people in the screening room.  Out in the lobby, there was not a soul to be seen.  No one was selling tickets; no one was at the concession stand.  Some of the lights had been turned off.  When I re-entered the screening room, I remarked to J that the lobby was vacant and we were still the only two people watching the movie.

After the movie was over, we walked out to the lobby.  Still no one was in sight.  Our car was the only car parked nearby.  It had snowed about an inch while we were inside.  We got into the car and drove home.  I was starting to wonder if we were in the twilight zone.

The Universe is in Us

Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks on the Universe:

http://www.youtube.com/WorldPantheism#p/a/u/0/5rr-jyg0MyI

So far this week...

It is now Thursday.  This week has progressed like so many other weeks.  On Sunday I went to Restoration.  It was Humanist Sunday, and I gave the talk that day.  I spoke on "World Population Growth."  Gail and I played the special music, "Angels from the Realms of Glory."  Following the service we had a potluck dinner.

Next day was duet practice.  We plan to play a piece by Melody Bober for the February service.  We are still working on "Tierra Del Sol," but it is not yet ready.  We performed the piece about five year ago with no problem.  We got the piece out recently to re-learn it.  If you go for a while without playing a piece and then bring it back, it is about like starting over from the beginning with the piece.

On Wednesday, we drove to Oklahoma City.  On the way, we stopped at Chandler to do some geocaching.  However, we discovered we did not have the geocaching sheets with us.  We got back on the turnpike and drove in to OKC.  We stayed at the Best Western on N. Santa Fe.  We had dinner at Mamacita's.  J had business in OKC which she took care of the next day. 

Then we went downtown and parked in a parking garage.  We had lunch at the Art Museum.  It's a nice place.  Next went to the OKC Memorial & Museum.  There was much more there than I had expected.  I guess we were in the museum for two and a half hours.  The museum is the most thorough treatment of any one event (the OKC bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995) that I have ever seen.  There are many TVs showing various aspects of the event.  The axle of the truck is there.  McVeigh's .45 handgun which was in his possession when he was arrested near Perry is on display.  Bits of the Ryder truck are there.  Film footage from a security camera of the Ryder truck going past a nearby builidng is there.  In short, there is so much there I could not see it all.  Toward the end of our visit, I was merely skimming the displays.  A part of the builidng (the old Journal Record building) was damaged by the blast.  It is left as it was following the blast.  You can see through the plexiglass and view the untouched rubble.

And now a message from RZ

Here is a New Year's message from Roy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFEF2qOtwM&feature=uploademail

Goals for 2012

Last year I set a goal of walking an average of a mile a day, or 365 miles for the year.  I met that goal.  For 2012, I want to repeat that goal, plus I hope to do a few more things.

In volkswalking, I want to earn 15 event credits.  It's not a very lofty goal.  It is quite modest, but it will take the cooperation of Mrs. N.

Last year I read 14 books.  Whenever I finish reading a book, I log the book at GoodReads.com.  If you are not familiar with this website, check it out.  This year I want to read 15 books.

I intend to continue playing piano to maintain my skill at the piano.

That will do.  That should keep me out of trouble.

The tail end of 2011

Today is New Year's Day, but I have a few things to say about the closing of 2011.  I saw my dermatologist Monday afternoon.  We packed up and left for a trip to Springfield on Tuesday.  We took Ayla with us and spent that night at the Arbor, a nearby motel.  We ate at Logan's Roadhouse on Battlefield, not far from where my parents live.  I had the catfish fillets.

Next morning, we took advantage of the free breakfast at the Arbor.  We then went to my parents' apartment.  Nick and his family drove up and joined us.  This day we ate at the Golden Corral.  Ayla rejoined her family, and they all went to Branson.  We stayed in Springfield and spent the night at my parents.

By 9 am the next morning we were on the road back to Sand Springs.  We had a boatload of mail awaiting us in the mailbox.  There was the mail from the holidays, plus mail from Tuesday through Thursday.  We made a trip to the bank and then over to Nick's to feed the goldfish.

When Nick got back, Luke wanted to spend the night at Nanna's, so we drove over to Nicks' and got Luke.

On the 31st, we went out to Keystone Park and got the year-round volkswalk set up for 2012.

A visit to the dermatologist

The day started with Gail coming over for piano duet practice.  We will be playing "Angels From the Realms of Glory" at church next Sunday. 

My GP referred me to a dermatologist.  My appointment was today at 2 pm.  He gave me some prescriptions which we got filled at the pharmacy.  I have dry skin.

After we left the doctor's office, we went to Keystone to pick up the receipts for the walking club.  From there we returned home.

Christmas 2011

One thing different about my daily activities today is that I did not attend church at Restoration.  They had no service today.  Instead I went with J, first to the 9:00 pm service at the Methodist Church last evening, and again this morning at 10:30.  In the afternoon today, we went to the Dobbs' house.  The Dobbs are the parents of Jennifer.  We had Christmas dinner and played games that afternoon.

We had some good medical news about Jennifer.  It seems her brain tumor has gone away completely.  She had several cyberknife treatments recently.

Interview of Ayn Rand

I fail to see how anybody can be so enamored of Ayn Rand.  Watch the following interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7zwO88nRH8&NR=1&feature=endscreen

On understanding consciousness

Here is another TED talk I found interesting:

http://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-12-21&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Walking and tires

This morning I reached one of my goals for this year.  I had hoped to reach an average of a mile a day walking.  With my 3-mile walk this morning, I reached 367 miles for the year.  At times I thought I would not reach this goal, but I kept walking anyway.  Things worked out so that I was able to reach this goal.  There are still a few days left in this year.  I hope to be able to do a volkswalk or two before the end of the year.  I need to go out to the YRE at Lake Keystone with the stamp plug for 2012.

In the afternoon, I went to Hibdon Tire Co. at Tulsa Hills shopping center.  I bought a new set of tires for the 2008 Saturn Aura.  Afterwards, I went to Target and bought an inflatable mattress for J. who will be baby sitting the grandchildren for a few days following Jen's surgery.  The previous blow-up bed had developed a leak somewhere.  Luke and Ayla are now with us for a few days.

Printing a kidney

Here is a video about some amazing new technology.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/20/printing-organs_n_1160307.html?1324396773&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl21%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D121822

Monday events

On Sunday evening we went to a Christmas Cantata at the Methodist Church.  There was an elderly woman (in her 70s or 80s) sitting on my right.  When her cell phone rang, she dug it out of her purse and answered it.  We were sititng on row three.  After she finished talking, she started sending text messages.  The cantata was Tapestry of Light: A Celtic Christmas Celebration.  It was written by Joseph M. Martin.  The program consisted of ten songs intersperced with Biblical text.

We made a trip into Tulsa this morning.  J had an appointment with a doctor.  I would say more, but J does not like for me to give out details on medical matters.  We stopped at the Crescent Cafe for lunch.  From there we went to Dollar General to get a few items.  It rained much of the day.

Nick brought his children (our grandchildren) to our house in the afternoon.  Nick and Jen went to see a doctor in Tulsa.  Jen will be having surgery soon.

Article on Ayn Rand

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/8958-ayn-rand-made-us-a-selfish-greedy-nation

The link above will take you to an article on the late Ayn Rand.  I cannot think of any individual I detest more than Ayn Rand.  The title of one of her books, The Virtue of Selfishness, pretty well sums up her outlook on life.  If you have time, read the article.

Solstice Party at Bradleys

This afternoon the HAT group met at the Genealogy Center.  I left the house early to get there early, but when I got on I-44 the traffic was moving at a crawl.  I bailed out on to Highway 75 South.  When I got to 71st St., I exited on to 71st St.  That is the location of the new Tulsa Hills shopping center.  Traffic moved at a snail's pace until I reached Lewis Ave.  By the time I got to the Genealogy Center, I was 15 minutes late for the meeting.  The meeting was in progress.  After the meeting was over I returned home via 21st St and Avery Drive.

This evening we went to the Solstice Party at the Bradleys.  There were 15 to 20 people there.  They had a table full of hors d'oeuvres which I lingered around for quite some time.  We discussed world issues for a while, and then I moved to the piano and played Christmas carols while the others sang.  We played and sang everything from "Jingle Bell Rock" to "Silent Night."  Around 11 pm we filed out of the house and headed for our homes.

Death of Hitchens

I just read a headline which announced the death of Christopher Hitchens at age 62.  He had been diagnosed with cancer several months ago.  His habit of smoking may have been a factor in his death.  The article had no details, but I'm sure there will be more about his death to read tomorrow.

A new song by Roy Zimmerman

Here is a new song by Roy Zimmerman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSAa86KuXVY&feature=uploademail

An evening at Phillips Theological Seminary

PTS was the setting tonight for a speech by Rob Boston, who was flown in from Washington, DC to address the Northeast Oklahoma chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  I saw a few HAT people and a few Restoration people at the event.  Boston spoke for a little more than an hour.

Flooded with calls

Lately I have been flooded with phone calls from family, friends, and admirers of all sort wanting to know what they can get me as a Christmas present.  Fret no more.  I will gladly accept a gift card from Amazon.  I will use it to download more books on my Kindle to keep me reading well into 2012.

Biblical justification of socialism

It has been said that you can find a Biblical text to justify anything.  If you doubt this claim, go to http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ and see for yourself.

To illustrate my point, take the matter of the Bible's stand on socialism.

In Acts, chapter 4, starting with verse 32 we read:

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possesed was his own; but they had all things common.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possesors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need,
And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite and of the country of Cyprus,
Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Surely there must be a passage in the Bible which justifies laissez faire capitalism.  When you find it, send it to me or post it on your blog.

Episcopal priest on religion

Hear this confession by an Episcopal priest:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1db_1323156698

A visit to Occupy Tulsa

I left out one thing from last Sunday.  During the Religious Education period, 10 am to 11 am, we talked about what we can do to help the Occupy Movement.  We decided to visit the site and talk with the people there.

When I arrived there about five people were at the site.  The person in charge seemed to be Eli.  The group has no structure to speak of, but they have figured out a means to insure that someone is at the site at all times.  When we left, there were about five people there, but not the same five who were there when I arrived.  Supporters came, stayed a while, and then left.

As I was parking my car, I saw another Restoration church member drive up.  It was Joy Avery.  A little later, Mary Rounds drove up.  Joy had brought with her a church hymnal.  We three sang a few songs together, a capella style.  Joy plays guitar, but she did not have it with her.  We asked Eli about upcoming actions, and he filled us in.

I was reminded of something Bill Dusenberry has said.  Nowdays, atheists and Christians have reversed roles.  Today you find atheists out working for social justice, while the Christians play the role of detractor of those working for social justice.  This is something of an overgeneralization for you can find Christians such as Sojourners (associated with the political left) who are working for social justice. 

We stayed about an hour before leaving.

The last few days

I wrote about our trip to Ponca City with Glenn and Gail, eating at Enriques, and visiting the Pioneer Woman's Museum.  That was last Friday.  We got home before dark.  Gail and I played our duet for Glenn and J on my grand piano.

The next day, Saturday, it seemed to rain all day long.  We had Ayla with us from the evening before.  The three of us went to Gail's violin recital that afternoon.  It was held at Hope Unitarian Church.  There were about 50 people in the audience.  Gail was not the only performer.  She is in a Suzuki class with others.  Ayla was getting restless, and we decided to leave at the intermission.

We drove to Charlie's Chicken and had lunch there.  It was still raining and the floor was slippery.  I managed to remain upright despite the slick floor.  Following lunch we went to Hahn's Appliance and bought a new filter for our refrigerator water supply.  We drove home in the rain.  That evening, we went to Randy's for Movie Night.  Gail and I played a our duet once again.  The movie was a documentary about some cave drawings which were recently discovered in France.  It seems a landslide had sealed over the entrance to the cave thousands of years ago.  Inside the cave are drawings of animals.  The drawings were made 30 to 40 thousand years ago, according to carbon dating.  They are the earliest human artifacts that we know.

The next day, Sunday, Gail and I played the special selection at Church of the Restoration.  It was the same music we had played earlier, a combination of Jingle Bells and Silent Night.  The message was given by Bill Dusenberry.  He spoke on "Licensure of Parents."  The next Humanist Sunday will  be on New Year's Day.  I will be the speaker then.  My subject will be World Population Growth.

The next day, Monday, Gail came over for our weekly duet practice session.  We are hoping to work up "Tierra Del Sol," a Latin sounding piece.  We played it years before, around 2006 I think.  When you don't play a piece regularly, you forget much about it.  So we are rediscovering this piece.  After we worked on this piece, we played Christmas music.  It is, after all, that time of year.

An Unusual How-To Book

Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever by Ray Kurzweil


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Kurzweil and I have birthdates that are within one month of each other. He is working on staying around long enough to make use of new technologies that will prolong life. I would like to do the same.

The book is quite inspirational. We have all grown up with the idea that death is inevitable. Could there be an escape from death? Ray Kurzweil says "Yes."

The technologies for life extension described by Kurzweil sound like science fiction. I can remember when the Dick Tracy wristwatch was science fiction, but we have far surpased that level of technology today.

Kurzweil forsees nanobots which travel in our bloodstream making repairs where needed. The nanobots will detect and eliminate cancer. Such devices are not present today, but Kurzweil says they are coming, if we can live long enough to get there. That is the purpose of this book. It is a guide to how to live long enough to get to the point where these life-extending technologies will be available.

There are a number of recipes in the middle of the book for healthy eating. There are also a number of medical tests which the authors (Kurzweil and Grossman) recommend, some of which which are not always suggested by your doctor. A number of links to web sites for further reading are provided.




View all my reviews

Trip to Ponca City

It has been a few days since I have posted anything here.  Not much has happened to write about, except today we did take a trip to Ponca City with Gail and Glenn Storey.

We left Sand Springs around 9:00 this morning and arrived in Ponca City shortly before 11:00.  We went straight to the airport to eat at the world famous Enriques Restaurant.We got there shortly before opening time.  In no time the place was filled up.

After eating we went to the Pioneer Woman Museum.  A lady there gave us a demonstration of weaving using a loom that was around 100 years old.

We returned to Sand Springs around 3:00 this afternoon.

I took a picture of the four of us in the restaurant, but J said I should not post it in my blog.

New duet music

I bought some more piano duet music the last time I was in Springfield.  The title of the pieces are:

• Dueling Pianos (David Carr Glover)
• Dramatic Dance (Melody Bober)
• Lakeside Dreams (Bober)
• Pelican Rag (Bober)
• Sea Voyage (Bober)
• Song of Autumn (Bober)
• Too Cool (Bober)
• A Winter Tale (Bober)
• Golliwogg's Cake-Walk (Debussy)
• The St. James Infirmary (Traditional)
• Borodin's Bossa (Borodin)
• The Water is Wide (British Folk Song)
• Tiger Rag (Traditional)
• Solace (Scott Joplin)
• Hanon Goes Haywire (Olson)
• Circuspalooza (Roubos)
• Amazing Grace (Traditional)
• Marche Diabolique (Brown)
• Flight of the Bumble Bee (Rimsky-Korsakov)

The first piece, "Duelling Pianos," is a single sheet.  The next six are from the book Grand Duets for Piano.  The last eleven are from the book In Recital for the Advancing Pianist--Duets from the FJH Pianist's Curriculum by Helen Marlais.

Playing a duet

Here is a recent picture of Gail and myself seated at the piano playing a Christmas duet.

Thankful for the Mystery

Here is a thought for Thanksgiving Day:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/11/22/142645717/the-mystery-i-m-thankful-for

An actual "death" panel

Following our lunch at Millie's, we returned to the Gillioz Theater and heard a panel discussion respond to the question, "How Should Rationalists Approach Death?"  The hour long discussion was quite interesting.  The members of the panel gave well thought out responses.  Being humanists, all members of the panel assumed that death was the final event in their life.

News Headline, Nov. 23, 2011

Fox News Viewers Know Less Than People Who Don't Watch Any News

The Skepticon IV Agenda

Last week we went to Springfield, Missouri for Skepticon IV.  Here was the agenda:

                 SATURDAY
 9:00   Check In & Introduction
10:00   David Silverman  |  Skepticism, Atheism, and Our Common Movement
11:00   Eliezer Yudkowsky  |  Heuristics and Biases
12:00   Lunch Break
 1:00   Panel: How Should Rationalists Approach Death?
 2:00   Dan Barker
 3:00   Julia Galef  |  The Straw Vulcan
 4:00  Greta Christina  |  Why Are You Atheists So Angry?
 5:00   Dinner Break
 6:00   Rebecca Watson
 7:00   PZ Myers  |  Rummaging About In The Genetic Junkyard
 8:00   Atheist Evangelist Sam Singleton  |  Revival

                           SUNDAY
 9:00   Joe Nickell  |  Undercover! Clandestine Paranormal Investigations
10:00   Jen McCreight  |  Skeptical Genetics
11:00   Richard Carrier  |  Bayes' Theorem: Key to the Universe
12:00   Lunch Break
 1:00   Hemant Mehta  |  The Need For More Critical Thinking In Math Education
 2:00   Spencer Greenberg  |  Self-Skepticism
 3:00   David Fitzgerald  |  The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion: The Mormons
 4:00   Darrel Ray  |  Sex and Secularism
 5:00   JT Eberhard  |  Why The Skeptic Community Must Concern Itself With Mental Illness

Moyers on Plutonomy

Bill Moyers had it right.  Listen and know he knew what was coming.

http://www.nationofchange.org/must-see-video-bill-moyers-slams-rule-1-plutocracy-and-democracy-don-t-mix-1321809065

At Skepticon 4

I wish I had a tee-shirt like this guy. I saw several people wearing a shirt like this one. The quote reads:

"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." -- Carl Sagan

The people wearing these shirts were from the St. Louis Skeptics Society.

Skepticon 4

The piano duo of Gail Storey and Dan Nerren
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We just got back from a trip to Springfield, MO.  We left Friday and returned today, Sunday.  Going there the traffic was a bit heavy but due to the clouds it was not a bright day.  But I had my sunglasses with me, just in case.

We visited with my parents that afternoon, catching up on what had happened since we last saw them, which was just two weeks earlier.  The reason for our trip was Skepticon 4.  We could attend sessions only on Friday.  We had to be back to Sand Springs to provide child care for our grandchildren.  We attended four sessions.

The first session or talk was given by Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists.  The title of his talk was "Skepticism, Atheism, and Our common Movement."  He spoke about the need to come out of the closet.  He said there are far more atheists, but that many atheists hide their atheism for various reasons, but mainly for employment reasons.  However, there are others, such as retired persons, who could be more open about their atheism.  Silverman estimated that about 15% of the American population is now atheist.

At the 11:00 o'clock session Eliezer Yudkowsky spoke on "Heuristics and Biases."  Following this talk we broke for lunch.  Two blocks away is Millie's Cafe.  I had a chicken salad sandwich with fried sweet potatoes.

After lunch we heard Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation speak for an hour without notes.  Barker is a former minister (19 years in the ministry) who changed his mind about religion.  He is now involved in a project (can't at the moment recall what it is called) to assist ministers who have had a change of mind about religion, but due to economic reasons are unable to leave their clerical positions.  He said that currently there are 119 people he is assisting.  Some have been able to "come out" and find work in non-profit groups.  His talk was largely auto-biographical. 

The next talk was presented by Julia Galef.  Her talk was titled "The Straw Vulcan."

After Galef's talk, we went to Hoover Music Company.  I looked through some of their piano duet music and bought three pieces.

I am now being encouraged to free up this computer for use by someone else, whose identity I am not free to reveal.

Olbermann on OWS

Here is Keith Olbermann's special comment on OWS:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8451-occupy-wall-street-needs-michael-bloomberg

From an e-mail I received today

Tomorrow will be a nationwide day of action in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Occupy Wall Street has put the attention of the country, in fact of the whole world, on the deep wrongness of the current American economy and democracy. Both are broken and rigged by design to produce extraordinary incomes and security only for an elite few.

That's why we will take to the streets for a day of mass action on November 17 to declare an "economic emergency" in every corner of the country, in all 50 states.

Catching up on things

First off, no more earthquakes have rattled the area.  There was no damage to speak of in the Tulsa area from the recent quakes.

Today I went to the service at Church of the Restoration.  There were a few more people there than usual.  I would guess we had 14 in the congregation this morning.  I had to leave a few minutes early and high-tail it home to meet up with J and go to a movie in Tulsa.  We saw Anonymous at the AMC 20.  We met four of our friends there.  It was a good movie and made the case that the works of Shakespeare were written by someone other than Shakespeare.  Due to the political machinations of the times, the overt political references in the plays could get the playwright in trouble.  It may be too much to ask readers to believe that a semi-literate person who left no writings (other than the plays and poems), could be the source of the material produced by "Shakespeare."

After the movie was over, we went by Nick's and got Luke and took him out to eat.  He asked to go to the McDonald's in Sapulpa.  We got there about dark.  Luke enjoys playing on the indoor playground.  After eating and letting Luke play in the play area, we headed back to Sand Springs.

Is fracking to blame for the earthquakes?

Below is one person's explanation for the recent earthquakes in Oklahoma:

The Oklahoma Geological Survey by Austin Holland was published recently, and it states clearly that fracking is one of the causes for earthquakes. When you inject the earth with saltwater to break up the shale beneath the earth, you're creating an instability in the crust that results in sudden and sometimes extreme movement. In other words, the earth sinks a little where the fracking occurs. Doesn't anyone see anything wrong with this? Oil companies are admitting they're damaging the earth, damaging homes, infrastructure, and possibly risking lives...all for the sake of natural gas and oil.

Just to illustrate the point, between 1977 and 2008, there were only 28 earthquakes in Oklahoma: less than 1 per year. Between 2009 and 2010, the state experienced 134 earthquakes: an average of 95 quakes per year. That's a huge difference. And it simply can not be attributed to a fault line or natural causes. Even the British energy company, Cuadrilla Resources, admits that fracking is the most likely cause of increased incidents of earthquakes in the area.

Earthquake felt in Tulsa area

Last night a quake struck shortly before 11:00 pm.  I was in bed but not asleep.  It felt like a big truck rumbling down the street.  I was aware that we had an earthquake the day before and immediately thought of that.  It lasted for about 15 seconds.  I read that some structures suffered damage, but I have not been outside this morning to look at our house.

Asimov quote

I have been reading some famous quotes by Isaac Asimov.  The subject of the talk tomorrow at Church of the Restoration will be Asimov.  I have my talk prepared.  I have been looking at quotes by Asimov to use as the Call to Worship or the Affirmation.  Here is one that I like:

“There never can be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save.”
― Isaac Asimov, Pebble in the Sky

A short trip to Springfield

We got back from a short trip to Springfield, Missouri.  All is well there.  We drove straight through, not stopping once for snacks or restroom breaks. 

That evening we ate out at Golden Corral, not far from the Abbey.  I ate Chinese something, corn, fried fish, hush puppies, shrimp, and I can't remember what else.

When we got back to the apartment, we watched MSNBC in the evening hours.

While in Springfield, I went to Springfield Music, just a couple of blocks from the Abbey.  I bought two books of Christmas music (duets) arranged by Melody Bober.

We stopped once on the way back.  We ate at the Hardee's at Exit 4, just before getting to the border of Oklahoma.

Eight hugs a day

On the value of hugs:

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-11-01&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Occupy Wall Street commentary

If you can spare 12 minutes, please listen to Chris Hedges and Amy Goodman discussing the Occupy Wall Street movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACVHfGdR1c8&feature=player_embedded

Occupy Tulsa 10.30.11

Today following the church service, I went over to Boston and 6th in downtown Tulsa to see how the Occupy Tulsa movement was doing. I spent two hours there, helping to erect a tent and listening to Chris Lee Becker entertain the volunteers with guitar and song. The crowd numbered about a dozen.

Occupy Tulsa 10.29.11

The local occupation movement, Occupy Tulsa, has a web site: http://www.occupytulsa.org/.  I looked at it this morning and saw a list of needed items.  One needed item was water.  I went to Wal-Mart and bought two gallons of drinking water and took it downtown to the occupation site at Chapman Green, 6th and Boston.  There were only a few people there -- five at the most, I would guess.  I placed the two gallons of water on top of the cooler, exchanged pleasantries with the girl who greeted me, got back in my car, and drove off.

At the most, there were five people at the site.  I will continue to check on the site and report what I find.

Flu shot 2011

Yesterday I got a flu shot.  It is supposed to be 59% effective.  Hmm?  Last year I did not get the flu shot and made it through the flu season without getting the flu.  My neurosurgeon says that getting the flu shot for so many consecutive years leads to early onset of Alzheimers.  He does not take them at all.  The shot costs $14.99.

If You Only Use Your Brain

Here is another re-written song by Jim Corbett:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=echa_Erd9ZA

A bit of humor

I find this clip to be hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

Recent happenings

Last Friday was the day of the Occupy Tulsa rally.  I wanted to be there, but was unable to go due to .........  Instead, we went to the HAT meeting.  After the HAT meeting, we went to the nearby Village Inn, just a few feet away.  There we enjoyed a steak dinner, two veggies, tea and a dessert.

On Sunday, I went to Church of the Restoration.  There were about a dozen people there that morning.  The title of the talk was "The Liberal Agony."  It was delivered by Mary Rounds and was based on an article from a magazine.

Next day was Monday.  Usually on Monday Gail and I practice piano duets, but we put off practice until Thursday due to a scheduling conflict.

And now it is Tuesday.  Yesterday, J took Ayla to her piano lesson.  Today we have Luke in the afternoon.  He has a piano lesson this afternoon, also.  That should be interesting.

Some thoughts on religion

When it comes to believing something that you can't experience with your five senses, may people assume that the choice is to either (1) believe the predominate religion of your geographical area or (2) believe no religion.  But why should one believe the predominant religion?  Is it because it is the easiest to do?  Probably.

There is quite a smorgasbord of beliefs to choose from.  The one that is closest to you (the religion of your family) is probably the one you will choose.  That seems to be the case with most people.  If your parents were Southern Baptist, you will probably be Southern Baptist.  If your parents were Roman Catholic, you are likely to be so also.  I think most people know this, but it doesn't seem to cause them to reflect on the accuracy of their choice of religion.  Most people adopt the religion of their parents.

There seems to be one exception to this rule: marriage.  Oft times a woman (less so, a man) will switch to the religion of her (or his) spouse.  Such is the case with my sister-in-law.  She was a Methodist, but when she married a Catholic, she switched to Catholicism.  When such a switch occurs, it make you wonder just how devoted a believer the "switcher" was to begin with.

In a recent book, Michael Shermer reports that a person first adopts his beliefs (most likely from family), and then he spends time thereafter seeking confirmatory evidence to prop up those beliefs.  He is quick to remember whatever confirms those beliefs, while easily dismissing evidence which tends to not confirm his beliefs.  Is that why we have so many religions today?  Could be.

It is rare for a person to adopt a religion that is foreign to his environment.  When was the last time you ran into a convert to Hinduism?

There seems to come a point where seeking to reason with someone regarding their religion is futile.  Ever try to get a Muslim to consider some other point of view?  After so many years in a religious milieu, conversion (or opening up one's mind to other possibilities) is well nigh impossible.

Slow week

This week has been uneventful.  Thus the lack of posts to this blog.  I would have to say the highlight of the week was once again my piano duet practice with Gail.

Tonight was Poetry Group.  We talked about Robert Browning.  We were not very enthused about him.  Next month we decided to select two poems and bring them to read to the group.  No one really likes the Bloom anthology we are using.

A couple of days ago I went out to Lake Keystone and replaced the 5K walk instructions with updated instructions.  I added some tabs to the folders in the walk box and placed a label with my name and phone number on the walk box.

I found a few tomatoes in my garden that were ready to come into the house.

I managed to go walking at the fitness center four days this week.  That increases my total by 12 miles.

I was going to go downtown tomorrow for the Occupy Tulsa march and demonstration, but J has vetoed that idea.  Instead I will go to that HAT meeting.

What few people we had committed to HATA tomorrow night were dropping like flies that I had to cancel the event.

A fourth chant

See the post below regarding the chant writing project.  I have just come up with a fourth chant:

Can't buy your food?  Can't make the rent?
You're prob'ly in the 99 percent.

Two more to go.  Come on and help me out.

Working on chants

At the organizing rally for Occupy Tulsa last Saturday at Newblock Park, I volunteered to write some chants for our group to use as we march through the streets of downtown Tulsa on Saturday, October 15, starting at noon.  Pause and reflect upon our goals.  Many people have lost their employment through no fault of their own.  President Obama has proposed a jobs plan which would put many people to work.  It is being obstructed by Republicans.

Thus far I have come up with three chants.  They are:

Hey, hey, what do you say?
It's time for greed to go away.

If we want to save our nation,
Banks must have more regulation.

We are serious.  This is no joke,
Spare us from the brothers Koch.

I would like to come up with three more chants, giving us six altogether.  If you can think of any chants, please e-mail them to me, or post them as a comment below.  If you can think of any, I will credit you by name in future postings.  Those of you who have taught English may have some advantage here.

Recent happenings

Before it gets too late, I thought I had better write a little about some events of the last two days.

On Friday morning, we went to the PAC and heard Anna Quindlen speak.  She talk seemed to be well rehearsed.  Perhaps she has delivered the talk dozens of times before.  It sounded like that.  There were no off-the-cuff remarks.  Every sentence seemed pretty well rehearsed.

Once the speech had ended, we walked down to the PAC, a few block to the east.  There people were gathering for a demonstration against job cuts.  Three groups were represented: the postal workers, the transport workers, and Occupy Tulsa.  I grabbed a sign and joined in.  A few speeches were made and the event lasted about an hour.  About 100 people were present.

The next morning I went out and got the newspaper.  When I opened it up, I saw my picture on the front page above the fold.  OK, I was in a group of people and the photo of me was pretty small.

By ten o'clock that morning I was at Newblock Park for a meeting of "Occupy Tulsa."  This is one of several groups which has sprung up as a result of the Occupy Wall Street event.  There were about 50 people there.  This was my first time to attend.  They had met previously, but I was unaware of the group's existence until recently.  The group was made up of people of all ages; people were from all walks of life.  I was impressed at how well the meeting was run.  We will be marching through downtown Tulsa next week,  If you would like to join us, be outside the BOK Center (southeast corner) at noon on Saturday.

On Pascal's Wager

"If I knew nothing about the tenets or history of a religion except that it claims its adherents are destined for eternal bliss while nonadherents are destined for eternal torment, I would expect upon further examination to find that the religion has some very, very good -- indeed, irrefutable -- supporting evidence.  Otherwise, I would conclude that the inducements of heaven and the threats of hellfire serve merely as mechanisms to gain and keep adherents, the religion not being able otherwise to stand on the evidence.  I reject Pascal's Wager as mental enslavement."

Ken Daniels, from Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary

Tossing out the baby with the bathwater?

While reading the news this morning, I came across this:

"The bill is part of a larger effort among House Republicans to reduce U.S. funding for family planning, both domestically and abroad. The Foreign Affairs Committee voted earlier this year to reinstate the "global gag rule," which blocks all U.S. funding -- including money for HIV/AIDS prevention, water and sanitation projects, child survival and education -- to international health organizations that provide abortions or counsel women on where they could safely have one."

From the Ozark Folk Center

Pictures at the Ozark Folk Center

Listening to the performers at the Ozark Folk Center.

A trio performs as I (in blue shirt) listen.

Exhausted, I stretch out on the recliner.

Each room had a different theme.  Our room was the one-room school.  Our room number was zero.

Tired after a full day of touring the folk center.

Pictures at the Ozark Folk Center

Here I am making my way to the Skillet Restaurant.

The daytime performers at OFC for Sept. 29.

Here is a crafts person working in the pottery shop.

Here is a woodcarver working in his shop.

Pictures at the Ozark Folk Center

This is a real live squirrel puttering around just outside my window at the Skillet Restaurant.

This is an inside view from the Skillet.

Another inside view

Here I am climbing the stairway at the Skillet Restaurant.

Pictures at Ozark Folk Center

A view from the deck

Another deck view

One act at the evening performance

Strum that ole banjo

Pictures from Ozark Folk Center

This is a picture of the lodging facilities known as the Cabins at Dry Creek.  There are 30 of these buildings.  Each is a duplex.  The buildings are hexagonal and are divided in the center.

Here I am standing in the doorway to our lodge.

Here is a view from inside our room.

Out back is a deck.

Vacation Video - Jig Dancing

Here is a video taken on our recent vacation to the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas.  To enlarge the image, click on the arrows on the bottom right corner.  To start the video, click on the triangle in the bottom left corner.

We've been traveling

We got back in today from a few days spent at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas.  Before that we went to Springfield, Missouri.

Our trip to the Ozark Folk Center was great.  We traveled first to Harrison, AR and spent the night in the Days Inn and ate at the nearby Chinese restaurant.  When we got back to the motel, we watched Meet the Fockers on HBO.

The next day we drove to Mountain View.  The weather was perfect with daytime highs in the seventies and nighttime lows in the fifties.  The first thing we did on our arrival in the small Arkansas town of about 2,000 people, was stop at McFadden's Dulcimer Shop.  The have dulcimers but a lot more besides.  It is a music store that has a little of everything.  I bought a tee shirt there.  They have many music books which I browsed.  In the back of the store are two workers constantly building dulcimers.  We drove on down to the cabin rental office.  Although we had reserved a room for two nights, they had recorded only one night.  They were booked up for Thursday night.  We had to make other arrangements.  I phoned a motel in town and booked a room for Thursday night.

The peak tourist season had passed.  The two days we were there, few people were around.  Sometimes you would go into a craftsperson's shop and be the only tourist in there.  There are about 20 shops in the village.  There is one new shop this year -- a glass beads shop.  The workers tell about their craft while making some object.  In the center of the village is a pavalion with live music.  A different act is booked for each day the village is open.  In the evening, five or so acts put on a two-hour show in the auditorium.  We attended the show each night we were there.  All music is performed on acoustic instruments and had to have been written before 1941.  Gospel and Bluegrass are the styles most popular there.

While at the Folk Center we ate at The Skillet restaurant.  We sat at our table and watched the squirrels play outside the plate glass windows.

Compressed Natural Gas

Here is a video explaining the advantage of driving a car that runs on compressed natural gas.  It runs about 15 minutes.  Click on first video.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pumpfiction1&aq=f

Jerry Lee Lewis style Boogie Woogie

Click the link below and give the music a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ZivmBtrZI&feature=related

Quotation

"Doubt cannot be imposed from the outside; it must begin from within."

--Ken Daniels, from Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary

Piano -- tuning and teaching

We had arranged for our piano tuner to come and tune the piano this morning.  She was here for an hour -- from 9:00 to 10:00 this morning.  We had made the appointment about a month ago.  It had been a few years since we had the piano tuned.  The tuning costs $110.  She said she tunes four pianos a day.

We picked up Luke after school and went by his house to get his piano music.  Next we came home for a little while.  At 5:00 pm, he has a piano lesson on Tuesdays.  We drove over to his teacher's apartment not far from here.  He had a 30-minute lesson, but he was not very cooperative.  I think he spent as much time off the bench (in the floor) as on the bench playing his assignments.  Mrs. Hopper (his teacher) is a very patient women.

Last week a worker from a local tile store layed some tile in the hallway for us.  This evening we replaced the baseboard in the hall.

A People's History is now online

Although I have long heard about it, I have never read it.  But this morning I discovered that the full text of the 500+ page book is available online.  I am talking about Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.  Here is the link:  http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

Recent happenings

I did not go to church Sunday morning.  Instead I stayed home and got ready for the 9/11 commemoration ceremony which was held at the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa.  I could have gone to church but was advised to not overextend myself.

After donning my suit, I drove to the designated parking location where a lady gave me a parking pass.  I parked the car and walked over to the BOK Center.  Then I went to the rendezvous location for the speakers.  Each speaker had a spot in the line-up.  I was somewhere in the middle of the pack.  There was a Catholic priest, and Orthodox priest, a Jewish rabbi, a Hindu, a Native American, and so on.  I was there representing Humanism.  We each were given 30 seconds to read a statement or say a prayer.  Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett introduced former mayor Susan Savage who gave the keynote address.  Songs were sung, flags were saluted, etc.  The whole event lasted about a hour.

I chatted for a while with the Orthodox priest.  The Orthodox church is, in my opinion, the church most like the original Christian church.  If I were a Christian, I would most likely be Orthodox.  The Orthodox church every year sponsors a Greek Holiday celebration with song and dance and food.  The festival for this year is this week, and I hope we can get over to the church during the time it is in operation.

Gail came over this morning for our weekly practice session.  We worked on "Tierra Del Sol," "Mountain Belle Shottisch," and "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen."  Since it is September and Christmas is coming soon, we played a few selections from a collection by the title "A Jazzy Christmas."

It's Time to Pray

Dr. Bruce Prescott says it is time to pray.  Please see his list of things to pray for at http://www.mainstreambaptist.blogspot.com/.  (Thursday, Sept. 8)  Let your conscience be your guide.

Today we went to Tulsa Town Hall and heard Ted Koppel speak.  Koppel is the well-known ABC newsman, who for 25 years hosted Nightline.  One thing I learned about Koppel is that he can sing and is a pretty good stand up comic.  He spoke about the news then and now.  Back then, he said that TV newsmen (and newswomen) told the people what they needed to know.  Nowdays people have more choices in news and now news people tell the people what they want to hear.  It is what they need to know vs. what they want to know.  If people want to know about the trial of Casey Anthony, they will find a news outlet to satisfy that desire.  Following the Casey Anthony trial means that there is much real news they will have to ignore,  and that may not be good for the country.

In the afternoon, we picked up Luke and Ayla after school was out.  They attend two different schools, but the two schools are within a half-mile of each other.

This evening, we went to the Poetry Group meeting at Barnes and Noble Bookstore.  We read and talked about English poetry in the period just following Shakespeare.  Herrick, Carew, Lovelace, and Suckling were the poets we read about tonight.  Next month we will read poetry of Robert Browning.

Church and Piano

Last Sunday was Humanist Sunday at Church of the Restoration.  The speaker was Marilyn Clarke.  Her topic was "Make the Mortal World Enough."  I played the piano during the service as a substitute for Edna, who had to be elsewhere on Sunday.  The special music was a duet played by Gail and myself.  We played "Long Time Ago."  There were 16 people in the congregation that day.  After the service was over, we had a potluck dinner.

The next day, Monday, Gail came over to practice duets.  We will be playing again at the Humanism and the Arts program on the 16th.  I will be getting my piano tuned on the 20th.